‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Reunion: Ray Romano & Boss on Who Got Most Choked Up

Let’s be real — everybody still loves Raymond. As the cherished 1996–2005 sitcom prepared to celebrate three decades with CBS’s Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion 90-minute network special, TV Guide Magazine caught up with star Ray Romano and creator Phil Rosenthal just a few days after they shot the event in October.

Original cast and crew, including Rosenthal, Romano (who played sportswriter Ray Barone), Patricia Heaton (his frustrated, supportive wife Debra), Brad Garrett (cop brother Robert), and Monica Horan (sister-in-law Amy and Rosenthal’s real-life wife) gathered in front of a studio audience packed with former guest stars and crew to share memories and show throwback gag reels. Rosenthal likened the experience to “a high school reunion.”

They even re-created the living room and kitchen sets from the Barones’ suburban Long Island home. “I let ’em have the couch,” jokes Romano, after noting that the original set’s sofa had been brought back to his California home’s theater that day.

Late actors Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, who played Ray’s parents, Frank and Marie, were honored, of course. “I got a little choked up talking about Peter,” admits Romano of shooting on what would’ve been Boyle’s 90th birthday.

Sonja Flemming / CBS

It’s that authenticity we’ve always loved about the onscreen family that’s present today. “These [reunions] are usually scripted within an inch of their life, but we winged it,” Rosenthal says. “It’s just what we wanted, the idea of hanging out with your friends.” More like family.

Below, Romano and Rosenthal chat about the special and look back on past TV Guide Magazine feature stories.

To start, why was now the right time to do this reunion special?

Ray Romano: We’re not getting any younger! [Laughs]

Phil Rosenthal: Yeah, that’s true. Honestly, I was ready to do it for the 20 year, and then the 25 year. But now, CBS said yes.

Romano: We were never, ever entertaining a reboot. Even if we were all still around, I don’t think we would want to do a reboot because it just wouldn’t be the same.

Rosenthal: And most [reboots] are terrible, by the way.

Romano: You never live up to what you were. We wanted to have that memory of us. But the idea of a reunion was always attractive. So any time those round numbers came up, Phil was the one who was coming to me with the idea and I said, “Yeah, I’m game.” And this one was the one that, for whatever reason, they allowed us to do it.

And you just shot this a few days ago [at the time of interview] — how did it feel?

Rosenthal: We’re still in the afterglow. We saw people we hadn’t seen in 20 years. Crew members, we wanted them all to be there. And we had a party after, and it was really, really nice.

Romano: There were like a hundred people there, right? It was great.

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And they recreated the sets, the living room and kitchen. Ray, you’ve mentioned in other interviews that you took home the original couch. Did you have to transport that for this, or is it a recreated couch?

Rosenthal: [Jokingly] Yeah, you have to strap it on a station wagon and bring it to the stage.

Romano: They came and picked it up. They got it from my house. They just brought it back yesterday or today. I don’t know if anything else was authentic. I think they recreated everything else.

Rosenthal: I think we both felt it was surreal to step on [the recreated stages]. And then, after a few minutes, it was comfortable. Like, we’re back on the set.

Romano: It was surreal, followed by surreal. It was a surreal feeling seeing it again, and then it was surreal that after like a half hour we felt like we had never left, you know? It was like we could crank it up again right now.

Were there any surprises or things that you learned all these years later about the show or your cast mates or anybody involved while doing this?

Rosenthal: I didn’t know Ray was funny. [Laughs] He was so funny.

Romano: The jury’s still out. But all the stories…

Rosenthal: Seeing the two kids grown up was a big one for both of us. It was just wonderful. There were no bad surprises, no bad like feelings. It was just sweet. We had a studio audience, and they all seemed to like the show. These shows are usually scripted within an inch of their life, but we winged it. We were hanging out, but we had enough material.

Romano: We had a rough outline of where we wanted to go, but that’s all we had. We kind of free-formed it to a certain degree.

Who got the most choked up? Anybody?

Romano: Phil, you did a couple of times.

Rosenthal: I did. I’m a softy. [Laughs]

Romano: I got a little choked up when we saw the set for the first time. They showed us the set before we went out there. We hadn’t opened the curtain yet for the audience. And then I got choked up talking about Peter because I’ve told that story before about how generous he was to me when I was a nervous guy during the pilot. But the fact that we were there in the spot that he actually did it, that really got to me.

What can you say about how you are honoring Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts here? What does that look like?

Romano: We talk about them, and everyone talks and shares memories that they have. And then we have a nice compilation video of their funny moments and poignant moments during the show.

Rosenthal: They were such consummate actors. From my seat, it was like this all-star basketball team. You could pass the ball to anybody and they’d score — dramatically and comedically. God doesn’t often give with both hands, but everyone was adept and could turn on a dime.

Romano: Peter’s wife was there, too, and we honored her. And also, it was Peter’s 90th birthday the day that we filmed it.

TV Guide Magazine

That’s lovely. Now, to look even further back, we have some great TV Guide Magazine quotes that I’d like for you to each respond to, from your past feature stories. First, from a 1999 Philip Rosenthal, in reference to the show being up against the likes of Ally McBeal, you said: “Maybe the public has had it with the trendy shows. Everything is cyclical, and it has come back to this old-fashioned kind of well-made sitcom.” That cycle has repeated a few times already, and it does feel like people do want those old-fashioned well-made sitcoms. 

Rosenthal: And yet they don’t make them. I have a big opinion about this. The domestic family sitcom is the building block of TV. And if you go back, to the history of the form, you’ll see that networks build their whole lineups on the backs of these shows. They’re always [there], and yet, they’re not cool. Executives don’t want that on the resume. They’d rather have the cool, hip show because they want to be seen as cool and hip. And when they get fired and get to try to get the next job, “Oh, I had the Cool Hip Show on my resume. Now you want me, I’m relevant.” But these shows, after Raymond was over, it would be five years before another family sitcom. And that was Modern Family. But it had to be “modern.” And then, was there another? A big one?

I think, because of how well all these do in reruns, still, to this day…I mean, the reason we’re having a 30th anniversary is because we’re still on every day. I don’t understand why [they don’t make more]. And if you read the quote, I was wrong. They haven’t had enough of the hip shows. In fact, they got hipper and edgier.

You know, this is something I wanted to say during the filming, when we were talking about Doris and Peter. The network, they’re always trying to get younger, younger, younger [audiences]. They tested everything. So they tested the characters who tested the best with young people. You know who it was from Raymond? Peter and Doris. They’ll say anything, do anything. They’re the most outrageous.

Romano: I resent that. [Laughs]

Rosenthal: They liked you, too.

TV Guide Magazine

Ray, I’ve got a quote for you too. In 2002, three years before the show would go off the air, you answered the question, “What legacy do you want the show to have?” You said, “That we were funny, but real. That people saw themselves in us.” Do you think you accomplished that? Does that hold up for you?

Romano: It does. And I find it out more than I knew it then, because now that it’s been on for years and people have seen it — and, listen, I don’t want to overstate this — but in a lot of different places, you can’t believe how these other countries and these other cultures all respond to it and identify with it. No matter how different we think we are, when it comes to family and the dynamic of it, and when it comes to children and parents and what they go through, and the love and the hate of it all, it’s all kind of the same.

Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion, Monday, November 24, 8/7c, CBS